Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage through Constructive Modeling

The issues of digital preservation of shapes and internal structures of historical and cultural objects are discussed. An overview of existing approaches to computer modeling of shapes is presented and corresponding problems are considered. We propose a digital preservation paradigm quite different from the currently popular "scan and mesh" approach yielding visible surface models. Our approach is based on constructive modeling that reflects the logical structure of modeled shapes. Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) and Function Representation (FRep) are examined and practically applied as mathematical representations which fit the purposes of long term digital preservation. Examples of CSG based reconstruction of historical temples and FRep based modeling of traditional lacquer ware are given.